Apr 19, 2007

What decision would you make?

It is often a good thing for us to question our beliefs and our morals for in questioning them we become stronger and more secure in where we stand in our lives. When these questions come they are not to prove one set of belief better than another but as a means to find out more about ourselves and others. In the case of this African folktale the question at hand is: is blood thicker than water? Further more what constitutes that blood, genetics or kinship ties that we create ourselves?

In the case for the Arab who had adopted the boy, he gave him everything, treating him better than his own father. Of course, money doesn’t mean everything but the wealthy Arab brought the boy into his home and not only gave him whatever he wanted but he gave him the opportunity to move up in a strict social class system so that he could have a good future, a better life than what he could have accomplished as a simple squirrel digger. As many people believe, donating sperm doesn’t make a person a father. What makes a father is a person’s behavior and treatment of the child in question. Surely the kinship ties that the Arab created for this boy were enough for him to be considered the boy’s father?

On the other hand though, his father is the man that gave him life. He helped bring him into this world so there fore he should hold claim to his destiny. His father’s genetic ties to him are an unbreakable code, for giving him life the father deserves his son’s unwavering loyalty. One could say that he was born into the position that he was meant to be in, to forsake by moving up in stature would be wrong.

There is no right or wrong answer to this debate. The boy certainly doesn’t have an envious decision to make. For this story we can create our own ending with our imaginations, which makes this type of folktale all the more interesting. However, in reading his story we must put ourselves in his shoes and think about what position we would take. Would we kill the Arab because genetic ties are the ties that bind or should the father die because we would have the opportunity to move up in society and have a better life or simply because the Arab acted more like how we perceive a father should? Who would we kill?